BANCROFT 
LIBRARY 

o 

THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


HIAWATHA 


AND 


IROQUOIS  CONFEDERATION, 


A  STUDY  IN  ANTHROPOLOGY 


BY     HORATIO     HALE. 


A  PAPER  READ  AT  TUB  CINCINNATI  MEETING  OF  THK  AMERICAN  ASSOCIATION  FOR  THE 

ADVANCEMENT  OF   SCIENCE.  IN    AUGUST,  1SS],  UNDEK  THE  TITLE  OF 

"A   LAWGIVER  OF  THE  STONE   AGE." 


SALEM,  MASS.: 
PRINTED  AT  THE  SALEM  PRESS. 

1881. 


HIAWATHA 


AND 


THE  IROQUOIS  CONFEDERATION, 


A  STUDY  IN  ANTHROPOLOGY. 


BY    HORATIO    HALE. 


A  PAPER  READ  AT  THE  CINCINNATI  MEETING  OF  THE  AMERICAN  ASSOCIATION  FOR  THE 

ADVANCEMENT  OF  SCIENCE,  IN  AUGUST,  1881,  UNDER  THE  TITLE  OF 

"A  LAWGIVER  OF  THE  STONE  AGE." 


SALEM,  MASS.: 

PRINTED  AT  THE  SALEM  PRESS. 

1881. 


A  LAWGIVER  OF  THE  STONE  AGE.     By  HORATIO  HALE,  of  Clinton, 
Ontario,  Canada. 

WHAT  was  the  intellectual  capacity  of  man  when  he  made  his 
first  appearance  upon  the  earth?  Or,  to  speak  with  more  scien 
tific  precision  (as  the  question  relates  to  material  evidences),  what 
were  the  mental  powers  of  the  people  who  fashioned  the  earliest 
stone  implements,  which  are  admitted  to  be  the  oldest  remaining 
traces  of  our  kind  ?  As  these  people  were  low  in  the  arts  of  life, 
were  they  also  low  in  natural  capacity?  This  is  certainly  one  of 
the  most  important  questions  which  the  science  of  anthropology 
has  yet  to  answer.  Of  late  years  the  prevalent  disposition  has 
apparently  been  to  answer  it  in  the  affirmative.  Primitive  man, 
we  are  to  believe,  had  a  feeble  and  narrow  intellect,  which  in  the 
progress  of  civilization  has  been  gradually  strengthened  and  en 
larged.  This  conclusion  is  supposed  to  be  in  accordance  with  the 
development  theory  ;  and  the  distinguished  author  of  that  theory 
has  seemed  to  favor  this  view.  Yet,  in  fact,  the  development  the 
ory  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  question.  If  we  suppose  that  the 
existing  and  —  so  far  as  we  know  —  the  only  species  of  man 
appeared  upon  the  earth  with  the  physical  conformation  and 
mental  capacity  which  he  retains  at  this  day,  we  make  merely 
the  same  supposition  with  regard  to  him  that  we  make  with 
regard  to  every  other  existing  species  of  animal.  How  it  was 
that  this  species  came  to  exist  is  another  question  altogether. 

Philologists  regard  it  as  an  established  fact  that  the  first  people 
who  spoke  an  Aryan  language  were  a  tribe  of  barbarous  nomads, 
who  wandered  in  the  highlands  of  central  Asia.  Those  who  have 
studied  the  earliest  products  of  Aryan  genius  in  the  Vedas,  the 
Zend-Avesta,  and  the  Homeric  songs,  will  be  willing  to  admit 
that  these  wandering  barbarians  may  have  had  minds  capable  of 
the  highest  efforts  to  which  the  human  intellect  is  known  to  have 
attained.  Yet  if  an  irruption  of  Semitic  or  Turanian  conquerors 
had  swept  that  infant  tribe  from  the  earth,  no  trace  of  its  exist 
ence  beyond  a  few  flint  implements,  and  perhaps  some  fragments 
of  pottery,  would  have  remained  to  show  that  such  a  people  had 
ever  existed.  Have  we  any  reason  to  doubt  that  in  the  course  of 
all  the  ages,  in  various  parts  of  our  globe,  many  tribes  of  men 
may  have  arisen  and  perished  who  were  in  natural  capacity  as  far 

(3) 


4  A   LAWGIVER    OF   THE    STONE   AGE  ; 

superior  to  the  primitive  Aryans  as  these  were  to  the  races  who 
surrounded  them  ?  Under  the  law  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest, 
it  is  not  the  strongest  that  survive,  but  the  strongest  of  those  that 
are  placed  in  the  most  favorable  circumstances.  On  any  calculation 
of  probabilities,  it  will  seem  likely  enough  that  among  the  number 
less  small  societies  of  men  that  have  appeared  and  vanished  in  pri 
meval  Asia  and  Europe,  in  Africa,  Australia,  America,  and  Poly 
nesia,  there  may  have  been  some  at  least  equal,  if  not  superior, 
in  mental  endowments,  to  that  fortunate  tribe  of  central  Asia, 
whose  posterity  has  come  to  be  the  dominant  race  of  our  time. 
Among  their  leaders  may  have  been  men  qualified  to  rank  with 
the  most  renowned  heroes,  exemplars,  and  teachers  of  the  human 
race  —  with  Moses  and  Buddha,  with  Confucius  and  Solon,  with 
Numa,  Charlemagne,  and  Alfred,  or  (to  come  down  to  recent 
times)  with  the  greatest  and  wisest  among  the  founders  of  the 
American  Republic.  If  the  possibility  of  the  existence  of  such 
men  under  such  conditions  cannot  be  denied,  the  facts  which 
have  lately  been  brought  to  light  in  regard  to  one  such  personage 
and  the  community  in  which  he  lived  may  have  a  peculiar  interest 
and  significance  in  their  bearing  on  the  general  question  of  the 
mental  capacity  of  uncivilized  races. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  Iroquois  tribes,  whom  our  ancestors 
termed  the  Five  Nations,  were,  when  first  visited  by  Europeans, 
in  the  precise  condition  which,  according  to  all  the  evidence  we 
possess,  was  held  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  Old  World  during 
what  has  been  designated  the  Stone  Age.  Any  one  who  examines 
the  abandoned  site  of  an  ancient  Iroquois  town  will  find  there 
relics  of  precisely  the  same  cast  as  those  which  are  disinterred 
from  the  burial  mounds  and  caves  of  prehistoric  Europe, —  imple 
ments  of  flint  and  bone,  ornaments  of  shells,  and  fragments  of 
rude  pottery.  Trusting  to  these  evidences  alone,  he  might  sup 
pose  that  the  people  who  wrought  them  were  of  the  humblest 
grade  of  intellect.  But  the  testimony  of  historians,  of  travellers, 
of  missionaries,  and  perhaps  his  own  personal  observation,  would 
make  him  aware  that  this  opinion  would  be  erroneous,  and  that 
these  Indians  were,  in  their  own  way,  acute  reasoners,  eloquent 
speakers,  and  most  skilful  and  far-seeing  politicians.  He  would 
know  that  for  more  than  a  century,  though  never  mustering  more 
than  five  thousand  fighting  men,  they  were  able  to  hold  the  bal 
ance  of  power  on  this  continent  between  France  and  England  ; 


BY    HORATIO    HALE.  5 

and  that  in  a  long  series  of  negotiations  they  proved  themselves 
qualified  to  cope  in  council  with  the  best  diplomatists  whom  either 
of  those  powers  could  depute  to  deal  with  them.  It  is  only  re 
cently  that  we  have  learned,  through  the  researches  of  a  careful 
and  philosophic  investigator,  the  Hon.  L.  H.  Morgan,  that 
their  internal  polity  was  marked  by  equal  wisdom,  and  had  been 
developed  and  consolidated  into  a  system  of  government,  em 
bodying  many  of  what  are  deemed  the  best  principles  and  methods 
of  political  science, — representation,  federation,  self-government 
through  local  and  general  legislatures, — all  resulting  in  personal 
liberty,  combined  with  strict  subordination  to  public  law.  But  it 
has  not  been  distinctly  known  that  for  many  of  these  advantages 
the  Five  Nations  were  indebted  to  one  individual,  who  bore  to 
them  the  same  relation  which  the  great  reformers  and  lawgivers 
of  antiquity  bore  to  the  communities  whose  gratitude  has  made 
their  names  illustrious. 

A  singular  fortune  has  attended  the  name  and  memory  of  Hia 
watha.  Though  actually  an  historical  personage,  and  not  of 
very  ancient  date,  of  whose  life  and  deeds  many  memorials  re 
main,  he  has  been  confused  with  two  Indian  divinities,  the  one 
Iroquois,  the  other  Algonquin,  and  his  history  has  been  distorted 
and  obscured  almost  l^ond  recognition.  Through  the  cloud  of 
mythology  which  has  enveloped  his  memory,  the  genius  of  Long 
fellow  has  discerned  something  of  his  real  character,  and  has 
made  his  name,  at  least,  a  household  word  wherever  the  English 
language  is  spoken.  It  remains  to  give  a  correct  account  of  the 
man  himself  and  of  the  work  which  he  accomplished,  as  it  has 
been  received  from  the  official  annalists  of  his  people.  The  nar 
rative  is  confirmed  by  the  evidence  of  contemporary  wampum 
records,  and  by  written  memorials  in  the  native  tongue,  one  of 
which  is  at  least  a  hundred  years  old. 

According  to  the  best  evidence  that  can  be  obtained,  the  for 
mation  of  the  Iroquois  confederacy  dates  from  about  the  middle 
of  the  fifteenth  century.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  prior  to 
that  time  the  five  tribes,  who  are  dignified  with  the  title  of  nations, 
had  held  the  region  south  of  Lake  Ontario,  extending  from  the 
Hudson  to  the  Genesee  river,  for  many  generations,  and  probably 
for  many  centuries.  Tradition  makes  their  earlier  seat  to  have 
been  north  of  the  St.  Lawrence  river,  which  is  probable  enough. 
It  also  represents  the  Mohawks  as  the  original  tribe,  of  which  the 


6  A    LAWGIVER    OF   THE    STONE    AGE  ; 

others  are  offshoots ;  and  this  tradition  is  confirmed  by  the  evi 
dence  of  language.  That  the  Iroquois  tribes  were  originally  one 
people,  and  that  their  separation  into  five  communities,  speaking 
distinct  dialects,  dates  many  centuries  back,  are  both  conclusions 
as  certain  as  any  facts  in  physical  science.  Three  hundred  and 
fifty  years  ago  they  were  isolated  tribes,  at  war  occasionally  with 
one  another,  and  almost  constantly  with  the  fierce  Algonquins 
who  surrounded  them.  Not  unfrequently,  also,  they  had  to  with 
stand  and  to  avenge  the  incursions  of  warriors  belonging  to  more 
distant  tribes  of  various  stocks,  Hurons,  Cherokees  and  Dakotas. 
Yet  they  were  not  peculiarly  a  warlike  people.  They  were  a  race 
of  housebuilders,  farmers,  and  fishermen.  They  had  large  and 
strongly  palisaded  towns,  well-cultivated  fields,  and  substantial 
houses,  sometimes  a  hundred  feet  long,  in  which  many  kindred 
families  dwelt  together. 

At  this  time  two  great  dangers,  the  one  from  without,  the  other 
from  within,  pressed  upon  these  tribes.  The  Mohegans,  or  Mohi 
cans,  a  powerful  Algonquin  people,  whose  settlements  stretched 
along  the  Hudson  river,  south  of  the  Mohawks,  and  extended 
thence  eastward  into  New  England,  waged  a  desperate  war  against 
them.  In  this  war  the  most  easterly  of  the  Iroquois,  the  Mo 
hawks  and  Oneidas,  bore  the  brunt  and  were  the  greatest  sufferers. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  two  westerly  nations,  the  Senecas  and 
Cayugas,  had  a  peril  of  their  own  to  encounter.  The  central  na 
tion,  the  Onondagas,  were  then  under  the  control  of  a  dreaded 
chief,  whose  name  is  variously  given,  Atotarho,  Watatotahlo,  To- 
dodaho,  according  to  the  dialect  of  the  speaker  and  the  orthogra 
phy  of  the  writer.  He  was  a  man  of  great  force  of  character 
and  of  formidable  qualities,  —  haughty,  ambitious,  crafty  and 
bold, — a  determined  and  successful  warrior,  and  at  home,  so  far 
as  the  constitution  of  an  Indian  tribe  would  allow,  a  stern  and 
remorseless  tyrant.  He  tolerated  no  equal.  The  chiefs  who  ven 
tured  to  oppose  him  were  taken  off  one  after  another  by  secret 
means,  or  were  compelled  to  flee  for  safety  to  other  tribes.  His 
subtlety  and  artifices  had  acquired  for  him  the  reputation  of  a 
wizard.  He  knew,  they  say,  what  was  going  on  at  a  distance  as 
well  as  if  he  were  present ;  and  he  could  destroy  his  enemies  by 
some  magical  art,  while  he  himself  was  far  away.  In  spite  of  the 
fear  which  he  inspired,  his  domination  would  probably  not  have 
been  endured  by  an  Indian  community,  but  for  his  success  in  war. 


BY   HORATIO   HALE.  7 

He  had  made  himself  and  his  people  a  terror  to  the  Cayugas  and  the 
Senecas.  According  to  one  account,  he  had  subdued  both  of  those 
tribes ;  but  the  record-keepers  of  the  present  day  do  not  confirm 
this  statement,  which  indeed  is  not  consistent  with  the  subsequent 
history  of  the  confederation. 

The  name  Atotarho  signifies  "entangled."  The  usual  process 
by  which  mythology,  after  a  few  generations,  makes  fables  out  of 
names,  has  not  been  wanting  here.  In  the  legends  which  the 
Indian  story-tellers  recount  in  winter  about  their  cabin  fires,  Ato 
tarho  figures  as  a  being  of  preterhuman  nature,  whose  head,  in 
lieu  of  hair,  is  adorned  with  living  snakes.  A  rude  pictorial  repre 
sentation  shows  him  seated  and  giving  audience,  in  horrible  state, 
with  the  upper  part  of  his  person  enveloped  by  these  writhing  and 
entangled  reptiles.  But  the  grave  Councillors  of  the  Canadian 
Reservation,  who  recite  his  history  as  they  have  heard  it  from 
their  fathers  at  every  installation  of  a  high  chief,  do  not  repeat 
these  inventions  of  marvel-loving  gossips,  and  only  smile  with 
good-humored  derision  when  they  are  referred  to. 

There  was  at  this  time  among  the  Onondagas  a  chief  of  high 
rank  whose  name,  variously  written  —  Hiawatha,  Hayonwatha, 
Ayongwhata,  Taoungwatha — is  rendered,  "he  who  seeks  the 
wampum  belt."  He  had  made  himself  greatly  esteemed  by  his 
wisdom  and  his  benevolence.  He  was  now  past  middle  age. 

Jr  o 

Though  many  of  his  friends  and  relatives  had  perished  by  the 
machinations  of  Atotarho,  he  himself  had  been  spared.  The 
qualities  which  gained  him  general  respect  had,  perhaps,  not  been 
without  influence  even  on  that  redoubtable  chief.  Hiawatha  had 
long  beheld  with  grief  the  evils  which  afflicted  not  only  his  own 
nation,  but  all  the  other  tribes  about  them,  through  the  continu 
al  wars  in  which  they  were  engaged,  and  the  misgovernment  and 
miseries  at  home  which  these  wars  produced.  With  much  medi 
tation  he  had  elaborated  in  his  mind  the  scheme  of  a  vast  confed 
eration  which  would  ensure  universal  peace.  In  the  mere  plan  of 
a  confederation  there  was  nothing  new.  There  are  probably  few, 
if  any,  Indian  tribes  which  have  not,  at  one  time  or  another,  been 
members  of  a  league  or  confederacy.  It  may  almost  be  said  to  be 
their  normal  condition.  But  the  plan  which  Hiawatha  had  evolved 
differed  from  all  others  in  two  particulars.  The  system  which  he 
devised  was  to  be  not  a  loose  and  transitory  league,  but  a  perma 
nent  government.  While  each  nation  was  to  retain  its  own  coun- 


A    LAWGIVER    OF    THE    STONE    AGE  ; 

cil  and  its  management  of  local  affairs,  the  general  control  was  to 
be  lodged  in  a  federal  senate,  composed  of  representatives  elected 
by  each  nation,  holding  office  during  good  behavior,  and  acknowl 
edged  as  ruling  chiefs  throughout  the  whole  confederacy.  Still 
further,  and  more  remarkably,  the  confederation  was  not  to  be  a 
limited  one.  It  was  to  be  indefinitely  expansible.  The  avowed 
design  of  its  proposer  was  to  abolish  war  altogether.  He  wished 
the  federation  to  extend  until  all  the  tribes  of  men  should  be  in 
cluded  in  it,  and  peace  should  everywhere  reign.  Such  is  the 
positive  testimony  of  the  Iroquois  themselves ;  and  their  state 
ment,  as  will  be  seen,  is  supported  by  historical  evidence. 

Hiawatha's  first  endeavor  was  to  enlist  his  own  nation  in  the 
cause.  He  summoned  a  meeting  of  the  chiefs  and  people  of  the 
Onondaga  towns.  The  summons,  proceeding  from  a  chief  of  his  rank 
and  reputation,  attracted  a  large  concourse.  k  fc  They  came  together," 
said  the  narrator,  u  along  the  creeks,  from  all  parts,  to  the  general 
council-fire."  But  what  effect  the  grand  projects  of  the  chief,  en 
forced  by  the  eloquence  for  which  he  was  noted,  might  have  had 
upon  his  auditors,  could  not  be  known.  For  there  appeared 
among  them  a  well-known  figure,  grim,  silent  and  forbidding, 
whose  terrible  aspect  overawed  the  assemblage.  The  unspoken 
displeasure  of  Atotarho  was  sufficient  to  stifle  all  debate,  and  the 
meeting  dispersed.  This  result,  which  seems  a  singular  conclusion 
of  an  Indian  council — the  most  independent  and  free-spoken  of 
all  gatherings — is  sufficiently  explained  by  the  fact  that  Atotarho 
had  organized  among  the  more  reckless  warriors  of  his  tribe  a 
band  of  unscrupulous  partisans,  who  did  his  bidding  without 
question,  and  took  off  by  secret  murder  all  persons  against  whom 
he  bore  a  grudge.  The  knowledge  that  his  followers  were  scat 
tered  through  the  assembly,  prepared  to  mark  for  destruction 
those  who  should  offend  him,  might  make  the  boldest  orator  chary 
of  speech.  Hiawatha  alone  was  undaunted.  He  summoned  a 
second  meeting,  which  was  attended  by  a  smaller  number,  and 
broke  up  as  before,  in  confusion,  on  Atotarho's  appearance.  The 
unwearied  reformer  sent  forth  his  runners  a  third  time  ;  but  the 
people  were  disheartened.  When  the  day  of  the  council  arrived, 
no  one  attended.  Then,  continued  the  narrator,  Hiawatha  seated 
himself  on  the  ground  in  sorrow.  He  enveloped  his  head  in  his 
mantle  of  skins,  and  remained  for  a  long  time  bowed  down  in  grief 
and  thought.  At  length  he  arose  and  left  the  town,  taking  his 


BY    HORATIO    HALE. 

course  toward  the  southeast.  He  had  formed  a  bold  design.  As 
the  councils  of  his  own  nation  were  closed  to  him,  he  would  have 
recourse  to  those  of  other  tribes.  At  a  short  distance  from  the 
town  (so  minutely  are  the  circumstances  recounted)  he  passed  his 
great  antagonist,  seated  near  a  well-known  spring,  stern  and 
silent  as  usual.  No  word  passed  between  the  determined  repre 
sentatives  of  war  and  peace ;  but  it  was  doubtless  not  without  a 
sensation  of  triumphant  pleasure  that  the  ferocious  war-chief  saw 
his  only  rival  and  opponent  in  council  going  into  what  seemed  to 
be  voluntary  exile.  Hiawatha  plunged- into  tae  forest;  he  climbed 
mountains  ;  he  crossed  a  lake  ;  he  floated  down  the  Mohawk  river 
in  a  canoe.  Many  incidents  of  his  journey  are  told,  and  in  this 
part  of  the  narrative  alone  some  occurrences  of  a  marvellous 
cast  are  related  even  by  the  official  historians.  Indeed,  the 
flight  of  Hiawatha  from  Onondaga  to  the  country  of  the  Mo 
hawks  is  to  the  Five  Nations  what  the  flight  of  Mohammed  from 
Mecca  to  Medina  is  to  the  votaries  of  Islam.  It  is  the  turning 
point  of  their  history.  In  embellishing  the  narrative  at  this  point, 
their  imagination  has  been  allowed  a  free  course.  Leaving  aside 
these  marvels,  however,  we  need  only  refer  here  to  a  single  inci 
dent  which  may  well  enough  have  been  of  actual  occurrence.  A 
lake  which  Hiawatha  crossed  had  shores  abounding  in  small  white 
shells.  These  he  gathered  and  strung  upon  strings,  which  he 
disposed  upon  his  breast,  as  a  token  to  all  whom  he  should  meet 
that  he  came  as  a  messenger  of  peace.  And  this,  according  to 
one  authority,  was  the  origin  of  wampum,  of  which  Hiawatha  was 
the  inventor.  That  honor,  however,  is  one  which  must  be  denied 
to  him.  The  evidence  of  sepulchral  relics  shows  that  wampum 
was  known  to  the  mysterious  moundbuilders,  as  well  as  in  all 
succeeding  ages.  Moreover,  if  the  significance  of  white  wampum- 
strings  as  a  token  of  peace  had  not  been  well  known  in  his  day, 
Hiawatha  would  not  have  relied  upon  them  as  a  means  of  pro 
claiming  his  pacific  purpose. 

Early  one  morning  he  arrived  at  a  Mohawk  town,  the  residence  of 
the  noted  chief  Dekanawidah,  whose  name,  in  point  of  celebrity, 
ranks  in  Iroquois  tradition  with  those  of  Hiawatha  and  Atotarho. 
It  is  probable  that  he  was  known  by  reputation  to  Hiawatha,  and 
not  unlikely  that  they  were  related.  According  to  one  account 
Dekanawidah  was  an  Onondaga,  adopted  among  the  Mohawks. 
Another  narrative  makes  him  a  Mohawk  by  birth.  The  proba- 
2 


10  A    LAWGIVER    OF    THE    STONE    AGE  ; 

bility  seems  to  be  that  he  was  the  son  of  an  Onondaga  father,  who 
had  been  adopted  by  the  Mohawks,  and  of  a  Mohawk  mother.  That 
he  was  not  of  pure  Mohawk  blood  is  shown  by  the  fact,  which  is  re 
membered,  that  his  father  had  had  successive!}7  three  wives,  one  be 
longing  to  each  of  the  three  clans,  Bear,  Wolf,  and  Turtle,  which 
compose  the  Mohawk  nation.  If  the  father  had  been  a  Mohawk, 
he  would  have  belonged  to  one  of  the  Mohawk  clans,  and  could 
not  then  (according  to  the  Indian  law)  have  married  into  it.  He 
had  seven  sons,  including  Dekanawidah,  who,  with  their  families, 
dwelt  together  in  one  of  the  "long  houses"  common  in  that  day 
among  the  Iroquois.  These  ties  of  kindred,  together  with  this 
fraternal  strength,  and  his  reputation  as  a  sagacious  councillor, 
gave  Dekanawidah  great  influence  among  his  people.  But,  in  the 
Indian  sense,  he  was  not  the  leading  chief.  This  position  belonged 
to  Tekarihoken  (better  known  in  books  as  Tecarihoga)  whose 
primacy  as  the  first  chief  of  the  eldest  among  the  Iroquois  nations 
was  then,  and  is  still,  universally  admitted.  Each  nation  has  al 
ways  had  a  head-chief,  to  whom  belonged  the  hereditary  right  and 
duty  of  lighting  the  council-fire,  and  taking  the  first  place  in  pub 
lic  meetings.  But  among  the  Indians,  as  in  other  communities, 
hereditary  rank  and  personal  influence  do  not  always,  or  indeed 
ordinarily,  go  together.  If  Hiawatha  could  gain  over  Dekanawi 
dah  to  his  views,  he  would  have  done  much  toward  the  accomplish 
ment  of  his  purposes. 

In  the  early  dawn  he  seated  himself  on  a  fallen  trunk,  near  the 
spring  from  which  the  inhabitants  of  the  long-house  drew  their 
water.  Presently  one  of  the  brothers  came  out  with  a  vessel  of 
elm-bark,  and  approached  the  spring.  Hiawatha  sat  silent  and 
motionless.  Something  in  his  aspect  awed  the  warrior,  who  feared 
to  address  him.  He  returned  to  the  house,  and  said  to  Dekanawi 
dah,  "a  man,  or  a  figure  like  a  man,  is  seated  by  the  spring,  having 
his  breast  covered  with  strings  of  white  shells."  ult  is  a  guest," 
replied  the  chief;  "  go  and  bring  him  in.  We  will  make  him  wel 
come."  Thus  Hiawatha  and  Dekanawidah  first  met.  They  found 
in  each  other  kindred  spirits.  The  sagacity  of  the  Mohawk  chief 
grasped  at  once  the  advantages  of  the  proposed  plan,  and  the  two 
worked  together  in  perfecting  it,  and  in  commending  it  to  the  peo 
ple.  After  much  discussion  in  council,  the  adhesion  of  the  Mo 
hawk  nation  was  secured.  Dekanawidah  then  despatched  two  of 
his  brothers  as  ambassadors  to  the  nearest  tribe,  the  Oneidas,  to 


BY    HORATIO    HALE.  11 

lay  the  project  before  them.  The  Oneida  nation  is  deemed  to  be 
a  comparatively  recent  offshoot  from  the  Mohawks.  The  differ 
ence  of  language  is  slight,  showing  that  their  separation  was  much 
Liter  than  that  of  the  Onondagas.  In  the  figurative  speech  of  the 
Iroquois,  the  Oneida  is  the  son,  and  the  Onondaga  is  the  brother, 
of  the  Mohawk.  Dekanawidah  had  good  reason  to  expect  that  it 
would  not  prove  difficult  to  win  the  consent  of  the  Oneidas  to  the 
proposed  scheme.  But  delay  and  deliberation  mark  all  public  acts 
of  the  Indians.  The  ambassadors  found  the  leading  chief,  Odats- 
hehte,  at  his  town  on  the  Oueida  creek.  He  received  their  mes 
sage  in  a  friendly  way,  but  required  time  for  his  people  to  consider 
it  in  council.  "  Come  back  in  another  day,"  he  said  to  the  mes 
sengers.  In  the  political  speech  of  the  Indians,  a  day  is  under 
stood  to  mean  a  year.  The  envoys  carried  back  the  reply  to 
Dekauawidah  and  Hiawatha,  who  knew  that  they  could  do  nothing 
but  wait  the  prescribed  time.  After  the  lapse  of  a  year,  they 
repaired  to  the  place  of  meeting.  The  treaty  which  initiated  the 
great  league  was  then  and  there  ratified  between  the  representatives 
of  the  Mohawk  and  Oneida  nations.  The  name  of  Odatshehte 
means  "the  quiver-bearer;"  and  as  Atotarho,  "the  entangled," 
is  fabled  to  have  had  his  head  wreathed  with  snaky  locks,  and  as 
Hiawatha,  "  the  wampum-seeker,"  is  represented  to  have  wrought 
shells  into  wampum,  so  the  Oneida  chief  is  reputed  to  have 
appeared  at  this  treaty  bearing  at  his  shoulder  a  quiver  full  of 
arrows. 

The  Onondagas  lay  next  to  the  Oneidas.  To  them,  or  rather 
to  their  terrible  chief,  the  next  application  was  made.  The  first 
meeting  of  Atotarho  and  Dekanawidah  is  a  notable  event  in 
Iroquois  history.  At  a  later  day,  a  native  artist  sought  to  rep 
resent  it  in  an  historical  picture,  which  has  been  already  referred 
to.  Atotarho  is  seated  in  solitary  and  surly  dignity,  smoking  a 
long  pipe,  his  head  and  body  encircled  with  contorted  and  angry 
serpents.  Standing  before  him  are  two  figures  which  cannot  be 
mistaken.  The  foremost,  a  plumed  and  cinctured  warrior,  de 
picted  as  addressing  the  Onondaga  chief,  holds  in  his  right  hand, 
as  a  staff,  his  fiint-headed  spear, —  the  ensign  which  marks  him  as 
the  representative  of  the  Kanienga,  or  "People  of  the  Flint," — 
for  so  the  Mohawks  style  themselves.  Behind  him  another 
plumed  figure  bears  in  his  hand  a  bow  with  arrows,  and  at  his 
shoulder  a  quiver.  Divested  of  its  mythological  embellishments, 


12  A    LAWGIVER    OF    THE    STONE    AGE  J 

the  picture  rudely  represents  the  interview  which  actually  took 
place.  The  immediate  result  was  unpromising.  The  Onondaga 
chief  coldly  refused  to  entertain  the  project,  which  he  had  already 
rejected  when  proposed  b}T  Hiawatha.  The  ambassadors  were  not 
discouraged.  Beyond  the  Onondagas  were  scattered  the  villages  of 
the  Cayugas,  a  people  described  by  the  Jesuit  missionaries,  at  a 
later  day,  as  the  most  mild  and  tractable  of  the  Iroquois.  They 
were  considered  an  offshoot  of  the  Onondagas,  to  whom  they  bore 
the  same  filial  relation  which  the  Oneidas  bore  to  the  Mohawks. 
The  journey  of  the  advocates  of  peace  through  the  forest  to  the 
Cayuga  capital,  and  their  reception,  are  minutely  detailed  in  the 
traditionary  narrative.  The  Cayugas,  who  had  suffered  from  the 
prowess  and  cruelty  of  the  Onondaga  chief,  needed  little  persua 
sion.  They  readily  consented  to  come  into  the  league,  and  their 
chief,  Akahenyonk,  u  the  wary  spy,"  joined  the  Mohawk  and 
Oneida  representatives  in  a  new  embassy  to  the  Onondagas.  Act 
ing  probably  upon  the  advice  of  Hiawatha,  who  knew  better  than 
any  other  the' character  of  the  community  and  the  chief  with 
whom  they  had  to  deal,  they  made  proposals  highly  flattering  to 
the  self-esteem  which  was  the  most  notable  trait  of  both  ruler  and 
people.  The  Onondagas  should  be  the  leading  nation  of  the  con 
federacy.  Their  chief  town  should  be  the  federal  capital,  where 
the  great  councils  of  the  league  should  be  held,  and  where  its 
records  should  be  preserved.  The  nation  should  be  represented 
in  the  council  by  fourteen  senators,  while  no  other  nation  should 
have  more  than  ten.  And  as  the  Onondagas  should  be  the 
leading  tribe,  so  Atotarho  should  be  the  leading  chief.  He  alone 
should  have  the  right  of  summoning  the  federal  council,  and  no 
act  of  the  council  to  which  he  objected  should  be  valid.  In  other 
words,  an  absolute  veto  was  given  to  him.  To  enhance  his  per 
sonal  dignity  two  high  chiefs  were  appointed  as  his  special  aids 
and  counsellors,  his  "secretaries  of  state,"  so  to  speak.  Other 
insignia  of  preeminence  were  to  be  possessed  by  him  ;  and,  in 
view  of  all  these  distinctions,  it  is  not  surprising  that  his  successor, 
who,  two  centuries  later,  retained  the  same  prerogatives,  should 
have  been  occasionally  styled  by  the  English  colonists  "the 
emperor  of  the  Five  Nations."  It  might  seem,  indeed,  at  first 
thought,  that  the  founders  of  the  confederacy  had  voluntarily 
placed  themselves  and  their  tribes  in  a  position  of  almost  abject 
subserviency  to  Atotarho  and  his  followers.  But  they  knew  too 


BY    HORATIO    HALE.  13 

well  the  qualities  of  their  people  to  fear  for  them  any  political 
subjection.  It  was  certain  that  when  once  the  league  was  estab 
lished,  and  its  representatives  had  met  in  council,  character  and 
intelligence  would  assume  their  natural  sway,  and  mere  artificial 
rank  and  dignity  would  be  little  regarded.  Atotarho  and  his 
people,  however,  yielded  either  to  these  specious  offers  or  to  the 
pressure  which  the  combined  urgency  of  the  three  allied  nations 
now  brought  to  bear  upon  them.  They  finally  accepted  the 
league ;  and  the  great  chief,  who  had  originally  opposed  it,  now 
naturally  became  eager  to  see  it  as  widely  extended  as  possible. 
He  advised  its  representatives  to  go  on  at  once  to  the  westward, 
and  enlist  the  populous  Seneca  towns,  pointing  out  how  this 
might  best  be  done.  This  advice  was  followed,  and  the  adhesion 
of  the  Senecas  was  secured  by  giving  to  their  two  leading  chiefs, 
Kan}7adariyo  ("  beautiful  lake")  and  Shadekaronyes  (4t  the  equal 
skies"),  the  offices  of  military  commanders  of  the  confederacy, 
with  the  title  of  door-keepers  of  the  "Long-House," — that  being 
the  figure  by  which  the  league  was  known. 

The  six  national  leaders  who  have  been  mentioned  —  Dekana- 
widah  for  the  Mohawks,  Odatshehte  for  the  Oneidas,  Atotarho 
for  the  Onondagas,  Akahenyonk  for  the  Cayugas,  Kanyadariyo 
and  Shadekaronyes  for  the  two  great  divisions  of  the  Senecas  — 
met  in  convention  near  the  Onondaga  Lake,  with  Hiawatha  for 
their  adviser,  and  a  vast  concourse  of  their  followers,  to  settle 
the  terms  and  rules  of  their  confederacy,  and  to  nominate  its  first 
council.  Of  this  council,  nine  members  (or  ten,  if  Dekanawidah 
be  included)  were  assigned  to  the  Mohawks,  a  like  number  to  the 
Oneidas,  fourteen  to  the  lordly  Onondagas,  ten  to  the  Cayugas, 
and  eight  to  the  Senecas.  Except  in  the  way  of  compliment,  the 
number  assigned  to  each  nation  was  realty  of  little  consequence, 
inasmuch  as,  by  the  rule  of  the  league,  unanimity  was  exacted  in 
all  their  decisions.  This  unanimity,  however,  did  not  require  the 
suffrage  of  every  member  of  the  council.  The  representatives  of 
each  nation  first  deliberated  apart  upon  the  question  proposed. 
In  this  separate  council  the  majority  decided ;  and  the  leading 
chief  then  expressed  in  the  great  council  the  voice  of  his  nation. 
Thus  the  veto  of  Atotarho  ceased  at  once  to  be  peculiar  to  him, 
and  became  a  right  exercised  by  each  of  the  allied  nations.  This 
requirement  of  unanimity,  embarrassing  as  it  might  seem,  did  not 
prove  to  be  so  in  practice.  Whenever  a  question  arose  on  which 


14  A    LAWGIVER    OF    THE    STONE    AGE  ; 

opinions  were  divided,  its  decision  was  either  postponed,  or  some 
compromise  was  reached  which  left  all  parties  contented. 

The  first  members  of  the  council  were  appointed  by  the  conven 
tion, —  under  what  precise  rule  is  unknown  ;  but  their  successors 
came  in  by  a  method  in  which  the  hereditary  and  the  elective  sys 
tems  were  singularly  combined,  and  in  which  female  suffrage  had 
an  important  place.  When  a  chief  died  or  (as  sometimes  happened) 
was  deposed  for  incapacity  or  misconduct,  some  member  of  the 
same  family  succeeded  him.  Rank  followed  the  female  line  ;  and 
this  successor  might  be  any  descendant  of  the  late  chief's  mother 
or  grandmother,  —  his  brother,  his  cousin  or  his  nephew,  —  but 
never  his  son.  Among  many  persons  who  might  thus  be  eligible, 
the  selection  was  made  in  the  first  instance  by  a  family  council.  In 
this  council  the  "chief  matron"  of  the  family,  a  noble  dame  whose 
position  and  right  were  well  defined,  had  the  deciding  voice.  This 
remarkable  fact  is  affirmed  by  the  Jesuit  missionaiy  Lafitau,  and 
the  usage  remains  in  full  vigor  among  the  Canadian  Iroquois  to 
this  day.  If  there  are  two  or  more  members  of  the  family  who 
seem  to  have  equal  claims,  the  nominating  matron  sometimes  de 
clines  to  decide  between  them,  and  names  them  both  or  all,  leav 
ing  the  ultimate  choice  to  the  nation  or  the  federal  council.  The 
council  of  the  nation  next  considers  the  nomination,  and  if  dissat 
isfied,  refers  it  back  to  the  family  for  a  new  designation.  If  con 
tent,  the  national  council  reports  the  name  of  the  candidate  to  the 
federal  senate,  in  which  resides  the  power  of  ratifying  or  re 
jecting  the  choice  of  the  nation  ;  but  the  power  of  rejection  is 
rarely  exercised,  though  that  of  expulsion  for  good  cause  is  not 
unfrequently  exerted.  The  new  chief  inherits  the  name  of  his 
predecessor.  In  this  respect,  as  in  some  others,  the  resemblance 
of  the  Great  Council  to  the  English  House  of  Peers  is  strik 
ing.  As  Norfolk  succeeds  to  Norfolk,  so  Tekarihoken  succeeds 
Tekarihoken.  The  great  names  of  Hiawatha  and  Atotarho  are 
still  borne  by  plain  farmer-councillors  on  the  Canadian  Reser 
vation. 

When  the  League  was  established,  Hiawatha  had  been  adopted 
by  the  Mohawk  nation  as  one  of  their  chiefs.  The  honor  in 
which  he  was  held  by  them  is  shown  by  his  position  on  the  roll 
of  councillors,  as  it  has  been  handed  down  from  the  earliest  times. 
As  the  Mohawk  nation  is  the  ' 'elder  brother,"  the  names  of 
its  chiefs  are  first  recited.  At  the  head  of  the  list  is  the  lead- 


BY    HORATIO    HALE.  15 

ing  Mohawk  chief,  Tekarihoken,  who  represents  the  noblest  line 
age  of  the  Iroquois  stock.  Next  to  him,  and  second  on  the  roll, 
is  the  name  of  Hiawatha.  That  of  his  great  colleague,  Dekanawi- 
dah,  nowhere  appears.  He  was  a  member  of  the  first  council ;  but 
he  forbade  his  people  to  appoint  a  successor  to  him.  "Let  the 
others  have  successors,"  he  said  proudly,  "  for  others  can  advise 
you  like  them.  But  I  am  the  founder  of  your  league,  and  no 
one  else  can  do  what  I  have  done." 

The  boast  was  not  unwarranted.  Though  planned  by  another, 
the  structure  had  been  reared  mainly  by  his  labors.  But  the  Five 
Nations,  while  yielding  abundant  honor  to  the  memory  of  Dekana- 
widah,  have  never  regarded  him  with  the  same  affectionate  rever 
ence  which  has  always  clung  to  the  name  of  Hiawatha.  His  tender 
and  lofty  wisdom,  his  wide-reaching  benevolence,  and  his  fervent 
appeals  to  their  better  sentiments,  enforced  by  the  eloquence  of 
which  he  was  master,  touched  chords  in  the  popular  heart  which 
have  continued  to  respond  until  this  day.  Fragments  of  the 
speeches  in  which  he  addressed  the  council  and  the  people  of  the 
league  are  still  remembered  and  repeated.  The  fact  that  the  league 
only  carried  out  a  part  of  the  grand  design  which  he  had  in  view 
is  constantly  affirmed.  Yet  the  failure  was  not  due  to  lack  of 
effort.  In  pursuance  of  his  original  purpose,  when  the  league  was 
firmly  established,  envoys  were  sent  to  other  tribes  to  urge  them 
to  join  it  or  at  least  to  become  allies.  One  of  these  embassies 
penetrated  to  the  distant  Cherokees,  the  hereditary  enemies  of  the 
Iroquois  nations.  For  some  reason  with  which  we  are  not  ac 
quainted —  perhaps  the  natural  suspicion  or  vindictive  pride  of 
that  powerful  community  —  this  mission  was  a  failure.  Another, 
despatched  to  the  western  Algonquins,  had  better  success.  A 
strict  alliance  was  formed  with  the  far-spread  Ojibway  tribes,  and 
was  maintained  inviolate  for  at  least  two  hundred  years,  until  at 
length  the  influence  of  the  French,  with  the  sympathy  of  the 
Ojibways  for  the  conquered  Huron s,  undid  to  some  extent,  though 
not  entirely,  this  portion  of  Hiawatha's  work. 

His  conceptions  were  beyond  his  time,  and  be}rond  ours  ;  but 
their  effect,  within  a  limited  sphere,  was  very  great.  For  more  than 
three  centuries  the  bond  which  he  devised  held  together  the  Iro 
quois  nations  in  perfect  amity.  It  proved,  moreover,  as  he  in 
tended,  elastic.  The  territory  of  the  Iroquois,  constantly  extending 
as  their  united  strength  made  itself  felt,  became  the  "  Great  Asy- 


16  A    LAWGIVER    OF    THE    STONE    AGE  ; 

him"  of  the  Indian  tribes.  Of  the  conquered  Eries  and  Hnrons, 
many  hundreds  were  received  and  adopted  among  their  conquerors. 
The  Tuscaroras,  expelled  by  the  English  from  North  Carolina, 
took  refuge  with  the  Iroquois,  and  became  the  sixth  nation  of  the 
League.  From  still  further  south,  the  Tuteloes  and  Saponies, 
of  Dakota  stock,  after  many  wars  with  the  Iroquois,  fled  to 
them  from  their  other  enemies,  and  found  a  cordial  welcome.  A 
chief  still  sits  in  the  council  as  a  representative  of  the  Tuteloes, 
though  the  tribe  itself  has  been  swept  away  by  disease,  or 
absorbed  in  the  larger  nations.  Many  fragments  of  tribes  of 
Algonquin  lineage  —  Delawares,  Nanticokes,  Mohicans,  Missis- 
sagas, —  sought  the  same  hospitable  protection,  which  never  failed 
them.  Their  descendants  still  reside  on  the  Canadian  Reser 
vation,  which  may  well  be  styled  an  aboriginal  "refuge  of  na 
tions," — affording  a  striking  evidence  in  our  own  day  of  the  persist 
ent  force  of  a  great  idea,  when  embodied  in  practical  shape  by  the 
energy  of  a  master  mind. 

The  name  by  which  their  constitution  or  organic  law  is  known 
among  them  is  kaydnerenh ,  to  which  the  epitaph  kowa,  "great," 
is  frequently  added.  This  word,  kaydnerenh,  is  sometimes  ren 
dered  "  law,"  or  "  league,"  but  its  proper  meaning  seems  to  be 
"  peace."  It  is  used  in  this  sense  by  the  missionaries,  in  their 
translations  of  the  scriptures  and  the  prayer-book.  In  such  ex 
pressions  as  "the  Prince  of  Peace,"  "  the  author  of  peace,"  "  give 
peace  in  our  time,"  we  find  kaydnerenh  employed  with  this  mean 
ing.  Its  root  is  yaner,  signifying  "  noble,"  or  "excellent,"  which 
yields,  among  many  derivatives,  kaydnere,  "  goodness,"  and  ka 
ydnerenh,  "peace,"  or  "  peacefulness."  The  national  hymn  of 
the  confederacy,  sung  whenever  their  "  Condoling  Council"  meets, 
commences  with  a  verse  referring  to  their  league,  which  is  literally 
rendered,  "  We  come  to  greet  and  thank  the  PEACE  "  (kaydnerenh). 
When  the  list  of  their  ancient  chiefs,  the  fifty  original  Council 
lors,  is  chanted  in  the  closing  litany  of  the  meeting,  there  is  heard 
from  time  to  time,  as  the  leaders  of  each  clan  are  named,  an  out 
burst  of  praise,  in  the  words  — 

"This  was  the  roll  of  you  — 
You  that  were  joined  in  the  work, 
You  that  confirmed  the  work, 

The  GREAT  PEACE."     (Kayanerenh-koica.) 

The  regard  of  Englishmen  for  their  Magna  Charta  and  Bill  of 


BY    HORATIO    HALE.  17 

J 

Rights,  and  that  of  Americans  for  their  national  Constitution,  seem 
weak  in  comparison  with  the  intense  gratitude  and  reverence  of 
the  Five  Nations  for  the  "  Great  Peace"  which  Hiawatha  and  his 
colleagues  established  for  them. 

Of  the  subsequent  life  of  Hiawatha,  and  of  his  death,  we  have 
no  sure  information.  The  records  of  the  Iroquois  are  historical, 
and  not  biographical.  As  Hiawatha  had  been  made  a  chief  among 
the  Mohawks,  he  doubtless  continued  to  reside  with  that  nation. 
A  tradition,  which  is  in  itself  highly  probable,  represents  him 
as  devoting  himself  to  the  congenial  work  of  clearing  away  the 
obstructions  in  the  streams  which  intersect  the  country  then  in 
habited  by  the  confederated  nations,  and  which  formed  the  chief 
means  of  communication  between  them.  That  he  thus,  in  some 
measure,  anticipated  the  plans  of  De  Witt  Clinton  and  his 
associates,  on  a  smaller  scale,  but  with  perhaps  a  larger  states 
manship,  we  may  be  willing  enough  to  believe.  A  wild  legend, 
recorded  by  some  writers,  but  not  told  of  him  by  the  Canadian 
Iroquois,  and  apparently  belonging  to  their  ancient  mythology, 
gives  him  an  apotheosis,  and  makes  him  ascend  to  heaven  in  a 
white  canoe.  It  may  be  proper  to  dwell  for  a  moment  on  the 
singular  complication  of  mistakes  which  has  converted  this  Indian 
reformer  and  statesman  into  a  mythological  personage. 

When  by  the  events  of  the  Revolutionary  war  the  original  con 
federacy  was  broken  up,  the  larger  portion  of  the  people  followed 
Brant  to  Canada.  The  refugees  comprised  nearly  the  whole  of 
the  Mohawks,  and  the  greater  part  of  the  Onondagas  and  Cay ugas, 
with  many  members  of  the  other  nations.  In  Canada  their  first 
proceeding  was  to  reestablish,  as  far  as  possible,  their  ancient 
league,  with  all  its  laws  and  ceremonies.  The  Onondagas  had 
brought  with  them  most  of  their  wampum  records,  and  the  Mo 
hawks  jealously  preserved  the  memories  of  the  federation,  in 
whose  formation  they  had  borne  a  leading  part.  The  history  of 
the  league  continued  to  be  the  topic  of  their  orators  whenever 
a  new  chief  was  installed  into  office.  Thus  the  remembrance  of 
the  facts  has  been  preserved  among  them  with  much  clearness 
and  precision,  and  with  very  little  admixture  of  n^'thological  ele 
ments.  With  the  fragments  of  the  tribes  which  remained  on  the 
southern  side  of  the  Great  Lakes  the  case  was  very  different. 
Except  among  the  Senecas,  who,  of  all  the  Five  Nations,  had  had 
least  to  do  with  the  formation  of  the  league,  the  ancient  families 


18  A    LAWGIVER    OF   THE    STONE    AGE  ; 

which  had  furnished  the  members  of  their  senate,  and  were  the 
conservators  of  their  histoiy,  had  mostly  fled  to  Canada  or  the 
West.  The  result  was  that  among  the  interminable  stories  with 
which  the  common  people  beguile  their  winter  nights,  the  traditions 
of  Atotarho  and  Hiawatha  became  intermingled  with  the  legends  of 
their  mythology.  An  accidental  similarity,  in  the  Onondaga  dia 
lect,  between  the  name  of  Hiawatha  and  that  of  one  of  their  an 
cient  divinities,  led  to  a  confusion  between  the  two,  which  has 
misled  some  investigators.  This  deit}^  bears,  in  the  sonorous  Mo 
hawk  tongue,  the  name  of  Aronhiawagon,  meaning  "the  Holder 
of  the  Heavens."  The  early  French  missionaries,  prefixing  a 
particle,  made  the  name  in  their  orthography,  Tearonhiaouagon. 
He  was,  they  tell  us,  "  the  great  god  of  the  Iroqnois."  Among 
the  Onondagas  of  the  present  day,  the  name  is  abridged  to  Taon- 
hiawagi,  or  Tahiawagi.  The  confusion  between  this  name  and 
that  of  Hiawatha  (which,  in  another  form,  is  pronounced  Tayon- 
watha)  seems  to  have  begun  more  than  a  century  ago ;  for  Pyr- 
Iseus,  the  Moravian  missionary,  heard  among  the  Iroqnois  (ac 
cording  to  Heckewelder)  that  the  person  who  first  proposed  the 
league  was  an  ancient  Mohawk,  named  Thannawege.  Mr.  J.  V. 
H.  Clark,  in  his  interesting  History  of  Onondaga,  makes  the 
name  to  have  been  originally  Ta-oun-ya-wat-ha,  and  describes  the 
bearer  as  uthe  deity  who  presides  over  fisheries  and  hunting- 
grounds."  He  came  down  from  heaven  in  a  white  canoe  and 
after  sundry  adventures,  which  remind  one  of  the  labors  of  Her 
cules,  assumed  the  name  of  Hiawatha  (signifying,  we  are  told,  "a 
very  wise  man"),  and  dwelt  for  a  time  as  an  ordinary  mortal  a- 
mong  men,  occupied  in  works  of  benevolence.  Finally,  after 
founding  the  confederacy  and  bestowing  many  prudent  counsels 
upon  the  people,  he  returned  to  the  skies  by  the  same  conveyance 
in  which  he  had  descended.  This  legend  was  communicated  by 
Clark  to  Schoolcraft,  when  the  latter  was  compiling  his  "Notes  on 
the  Iroqnois."  Mr.  Schoolcraft,  pleased  with  the  poetical  cast  of 
the  story  and  the  euphonious  name,  made  confusion  worse  con 
founded  by  transferring  the  hero  to  a  distant  region  and  identifying 
him  with  Manabozho,  a  fantastic  divinity  of  the  Ojibways.  School- 
craft's  volume,  absurdly  entitled  uThe  Hiawatha  Legends,"  has 
not  in  it  a  single  fact  or  fiction  relating  either  to  Hiawatha  him 
self  or  to  the  Iroquois  deity  Aronhiawagon.  Wild  Ojibway  stories 
concerning  Manabozho  and  his  comrades  form  the  staple  of  its 
contents.  But  it  is  to  this  collection  that  we  owe  the  charming 


BY    HORATIO    HALE.  19 

poem  of  Longfellow  ;  and  thus,  by  an  extraordinary  fortune,  a 
grave  Iroquois  lawgiver  of  the  fifteenth  century  has  become,  in 
modern  literature,  an  Ojibway  demigod,  son  of  the  West  Wind, 
and  companion  of  the  tricksy  Paupukkeewis,  the  boastful  lagoo, 
and  the  strong  Kwasind.  If  a  Chinese  traveller,  during  the  mid 
dle  ages,  inquiring  into  the  history  and  religion  of  the  western, 
nations,  had  confounded  King  Alfred  with  King  Arthur,  and  both 
with  Odin,  he  would  not  have  made  a  more  preposterous  confusion 
of  names  and  characters  than  that  which  has  hitherto  disguised 
the  genuine  personality  of  the  great  Ononclaga  reformer. 

About  the  main  events  of  his  history,  and  about  his  character 
and  purposes,  there  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt.  We  have  the 
wampum  belts  which  he  handled,  and  whose  simple  hieroglyphics 
preserve  the  memory  of  the  public  acts  in  which  he  took  part. 
We  have,  also,  in  the  Iroquois  "  Book  of  Rites,"  a  still  more  clear 
and  convincing  testimony  to  the  character  both  of  the  legislator 
and  of  the  people  for  whom  his  institutions  were  designed.  This 
book,  sometimes  called  the  "Book  of  the  Condoling  Council,"  might 
properly  enough  be  styled  an  Iroquois  Veda.  It  comprises  the 
speeches,  songs  and  other  ceremonies,  which,  from  the  earliest 
period  of  the  confederacy,  have  composed  the  proceedings  of  their 
council  when  a  deceased  chief  is  lamented  and  his  successor  is 
installed  in  office.  The  fundamental  laws  of  the  league,  a  list  of 
their  ancient  towns,  and  the  names  of  the  chiefs  who  constituted 
their  first  council,  chanted  in  a  kind  of  litany,  are  also  comprised 
in  the  collection.  The  contents,  after  being  preserved  in  memory, 
like  the  Vedas,  for  many  generations,  were  written  down  by  desire 
of  the  chiefs,  when  their  language  was  first  reduced  to  writing ; 
and  the  book  is  therefore  more  than  a  century  old.  Its  language, 
archaic  when  written,  is  now  partly  obsolete,  and  is  fully  under 
stood  by  only  a  few  of  the  oldest  chiefs.  It  is  a  genuine  Indian 
composition,  and  must  be  accepted  as  disclosing  the  true  char 
acter  of  its  authors.  The  result  is  remarkable  enough.  Instead 
of  a  race  of  rude  and  ferocious  warriors,  we  find  in  this  book  a 
kindly  and  affectionate  people,  full  of  sympathy  for  their  friends 
in  distress,  considerate  to  their  women,  tender  to  their  children, 
anxious  for  peace,  and  imbued  with  a  profound  reverence  for  their 
constitution  and  its  authors.  We  become  conscious  of  the  fact 
that  the  aspect  in  which  these  Indians  have  presented  themselves 
to  the  outside  world  has  been  in  a  large  measure  deceptive  and 
factitious.  The  ferocity,  craft,  and  cruelty,  which  have  been 


20  A  LAWGIVER    OF    THE    STONE    AGE  J    BY    HORATIO    HALE. 

deemed  their  leading  traits,  have  been  merely  the  natural  accom 
paniments  of  wars  of  self-preservation,  and  no  more  indicated 
their  genuine  character  than  the  war-paint,  plume,  and  tomahawk 
of  the  warrior  displayed  the  customary  guise  in  which  he  ap 
peared  among  his  own  people.  The  cruelties  of  war,  when  war 
is  a  struggle  for  national  existence,  are  common  to  all  races. 
The  persistent  desire  for  peace,  pursued  for  centuries  in  federal 
unions,  and  in  alliances  and  treaties  with  other  nations,  has  been 
manifested  by  few  as  steadily  as  by  the  countiymen  of  Hiawatha. 
The  sentiment  of  universal  brotherhood,  which  directed  their 
polity,  has  never  been  so  fully  developed  in  any  branch  of  the 
Aryan  race,  unless  it  may  be  found  incorporated  in  the  religious 
quietism  of  Buddha  and  his  followers. 

To  come  back  to  our  first  proposition, —  it  is  unquestionable 
that  the  Iroquois,  when  they  framed  the  political  system  which  ex 
hibited  this  singular  force  of  intellect  and  elevation  of  character, 
were  a  people  of  the  Stone  Age  ;  and  there  is  no  good  reason  for 
supposing  that  they  were  superior  in  character  and  capacity  to 
the  people  of  the  most  primitive  times.  What  we  know  of  them 
entitles  us  to  affirm  that  the  makers  of  the  earliest  flint  imple 
ments  may  have  been  equal,  if  not  superior,  in  natural  powers  to 
the  members  of  any  existing  race.  And  as  language  is  the  out 
growth  and  image  of  the  mental  faculties,  it  is  not  impossible, 
or  even  unlikely,  that  among  the  languages  spoken  by  the  people 
of  those  early  ages,  there  may  have  been  some  as  far  superior  in 
construction  and  power  of  expression  to  any  tongue  of  modern 
Europe,  as  the  languages  of  the  barbarous  Greeks  and  Germans, 
a  thousand  years  before  the  Christian  era,  were  superior  to  the 
speech  of  the  highly  civilized  Egyptians. 

The  conclusions  to  which  these  facts  and  reasonings  point  are 
of  great  scientific  importance.  As  tliere  could  be  no  sound  as 
tronomy  while  the  notion  prevailed  that  the  earth  was  the  centre 
of  the  universe,  and  no  science  of  history  while  each  nation 
looked  with  contempt  upon  every  other  people,  so  we  can  hope 
for  no  complete  and  satisfying  science  of  man  and  of  human 
speech  until  our  minds  are  disabused  of  those  other  delusions  of 
self-esteem  which  would  persuade  us  that  superior  culture  implies 
superior  capacity,  and  that  the  particular  race  and  language  which 
we  happen  to  claim  as  our  own  are  the  best  of  all  races  and  lan 
guages. 

[Printed  at  the  SALEM  PRESS,  Nov.,  1881.] 


